Blood Relatives
by xx.bm.xx
Summary: Renesmee's rapid aging process has finally slowed down and she is able to go to school. She has reached her teenage years after only 7 years of life but her family still treats her like a baby. How will she cope when faced with very adult decisions?
1. Chapter 1

_**Chapter One**_

I was daydreaming again. This time, me and Jacob were sitting in the meadow that my father used to take my mother to when she was human. Jacob was in his human form, gazing at me lovingly as my skin sparkled lightly –barely noticeable even- in the sun. I smiled back at him happily as we lay back and enjoyed the feel of the sun on our skin. My daydream stopped suddenly when Lindsey's voice interrupted my concentration.

"Your sisters looking at you," She told me, nudging me lightly with her elbow. I looked over to the corner where the rest of my family sat, trying to blend in I assumed but not doing very well. My mother, or 'my sister' as I called her at school was staring at me with a look of concern in her eyes but as soon as she caught my gaze she looked away quickly and I imagine she would have blushed if her body had allowed her to do so. "What do you think she wanted?" asked Lindsey, opening her chocolate bar, snapping it in half and offering me some. I took it gratefully. That was another good thing about being half human. If I was a vampire then I would never have known how good chocolate was.

"I don't know," I replied honestly. "If it's anything important then she'll bring it up again later." I continued, knowing that if it was something important then I would probably never know since my parents seemed so keen on protecting me. _"There are some things you have to tell her"_ Jacob always said. At least _he _was always honest with me, even when it got him in trouble. The bell went for the end of lunch and I sighed, dumping my tray as we left the hall.

Lindsey came back to mine that night. She always preferred coming to mine rather than me going to hers, even though in my opinion her house is much nicer. Yes, the Cullen mansion is... well, a mansion but it's also always noisy, always busy and sometimes just plain annoying. I do love the big garden and all the rooms and the widely stocked library but it's sometimes nice just to leave that all behind when I go stay at Lindsey's where it is quiet because her parents are usually out. We were working on our science project even though science seems like such an unnecessary subject since Carlisle has been teaching me his passion since I first showed an interest in it a few years ago. I knew enough science to at least get me through my A level exams and I hadn't even sat my GCSE's yet. I looked over at Lindsey who was frowning at Carlisle's medical book and chewing the end of her pen.

"Want some help?" I offered, shutting my exercise book. She nodded gratefully.

"Sorry, Nez," she moaned. "I guess I'm not much good as a partner. I'm rubbish at science."

"_No," _I wanted to tell her. _"I'm just unnaturally good at it."_ I ignored that thought and pointed at the picture in the book. "That one's Anaphase," I told her. "And that one's Metaphase," I continued, jabbing my finger at another picture.

"Ok," she mumbled, writing it down. "I wish _my_ dad was a doctor. I can't understand this at all."

"Want to leave it for tonight then?" I offered. "We could go see if we can move Emmett from in front of the TV, or we could go to my room or get _Edward-," _I cringed, wanting to call him dad. "To make us some food," I finished.

"I think I'd better go home," she sighed, sounding like she'd much rather stay here and do all three of the things I'd just suggested. "My parents will be home soon and I need to print off our English homework."

"Ok," I shrugged, getting up from the floor to see if someone would drive Lindsey home. Mum was getting the keys to the Volvo from the table in the hallway, having already heard Lindsey say she was leaving from the other room. I helped Lindsey get her stuff together and we chatted about what more we needed to do with our project on the way to hers.

"Thanks Bella," she smiled when we got to her small, but welcoming house. Mum waited until she was inside her house before starting the car again and beginning to drive home. She was driving faster than she usually did, and I guessed from the tense look on her face that dad had told her I was still thinking about the anxious stare she'd given me at lunch. Not wanting to disappoint, I leaned forwards in the back seat until I could reach her cheek with my palm, replaying the lunch scene in my head. When I was finished, I sat back and waited expectantly. To my surprise, she laughed.

"And what is it about my face that interests you so much?" she turned to me, now smiling and successfully hiding any of the tense expression she held only a minute before. Shame she didn't have Jasper with her to wipe out the tense atmosphere still lingering. I raised my eyebrow at her.

"I'm not stupid, mum," I told her, "You were worried at lunch, and I'm guessing that it wasn't just about your chemistry test, and I want to know what's up."

"Renesmee," she started, addressing me with my full name. She turned round to give me a disapproving look from the front seat. "I will not have you speaking to me like that." I rolled by eyes and crossed my arms childishly, glaring at the back of her seat when she turned back to the road. "I was not worrying," she continued, sounding like she was trying to convince herself more than she was convincing me. "I was just thinking about something. Something that is no business of yours." Then she relaxed her grip on the steering wheel as we turned into the driveway. I could tell my mum was confident that the conversation was over. Well we'd see about that.

I ran into the house and went to find dad who I could hear was playing my mother's lullaby on the piano. As soon as I reached the doorframe he stopped playing and sighed, turning round to face me with a look that said _I've just heard your thoughts and you're not getting anything more from me than you've already heard from your mother._ Glaring at him, I turned back towards the back door and stormed out the house. Rosalie and Alice were in the kitchen as I ran through, grabbing my phone from the bench and slamming the door loudly behind me. I could feel their stares burning into my back but neither of them made any effort to stop me and for some reason this infuriated me even more.

I started running, eager to get away from the stress of my family and the feeling of being left out. I dialled the numbers while I rang and I was already at the border by time he picked up.

"Hey Nessie!" his voice greeted me, excited. "You coming over?"

"Yeah," I smiled into the phone. "I'm just past the border," I slowed my run down to a walk as I entered the more residential and mostly non-werewolf part of La Push. "Come meet me?"

"Sure!" he agreed happily. I hung up, glad that at least one person seemed to be in a good mood today. I refused to let my family, or anyone in my new school call me my old nickname of 'Nessie' but I allowed Jacob the privilege, only because he looked so upset when I said he couldn't that I immediately changed my mind.

I noticed Jacob running towards me from the distance and I looked around automatically but the streets were empty of people so I turned back to him and smiled as he approached. He grabbed me in a bear hug and the stress and worry of the day melted away as his warm, strong arms wrapped around me protectively. He let go and smiled at me warmly, "What brings you here?" he asked, taking my hand as we began walking back to his house. I placed my palm on his cheek, replaying first the look my mum gave me at lunch and then the confrontation with her in the car and my dad's refusal to give me any information. He frowned when I'd finished and I took my hand off his face, waiting for him to give me some sort of explanation. A few minutes passed and he was still silent.

"Well?" I asked, growing a little impatient.

"I have no idea," he told me honestly. Jacob could never lie to me and I sort of expected he wouldn't know what it was about since he told me practically everything anyway.

"I'm just sick of it," I ranted, clenching my free hand into a fist, the nails digging into my skin. "They always treat me like I'm a baby."

"Yeah I know," he said, attempting to lighten the mood. "You're like what now? Seven?" he laughed at his own joke.

"Physical age only!" I insisted. "Mental age of about fifteen. I'm a quick ager if you remember right. Talking when I was what? Less than a year old," I continued smugly.

"Ok, ok," he held his hands up in mock surrender as we finally reached his house. I love Jacob's house, always try to spend as much time there as I can so I can talk to Billy and see Paul since he spends most of his time there with Rachel. I got on with Jacob's family and the rest of the wolf pack amazingly well which pleased him to no end and meant I was always welcome down in La Push. When Jake drove me home, my mood darkened a little and I went straight to bed, the one place I could escape the rest of my family since none of them were physically able to sleep. I didn't say anything to them before I went up and no one came to see me before I fell asleep. For the second time that day, it only made me more infuriated.

**********************************************************************************


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter Two**_

I woke up several times in the night, each time getting more and more annoyed at my inability to sleep. The duvet wrapped round my legs and my t shirt twisted round my body, digging into my arms painfully. When I finally fell into a comfortable, deep sleep it felt like no more than five minutes later my dad's cool, pale hands were gently shaking me awake. I groaned and rolled back over, burying my head in the pillow and trying to decide whether I could convince him I was ill.

"No," he smiled, "I know you're not ill, and I know a day off school probably wouldn't affect the outcome of your exams much," he stood up and opened the curtains, letting a bright, unwelcome light into my room. "But I think you should go all the same. And Lindsey would miss you if you didn't."

"Fine," I grumbled, sitting up. "I'll go to school if you tell me what mum was worried about last night." But he was already out the door, and the idea of hanging out in the big house by myself wasn't very appealing. I stretched and rubbed my eyes, waiting for Alice to come give me an 'Alice approved' outfit like she did every morning.

"I've got you some clothes," she announced, strolling in and placing the dress and sandals on my bed as I stood up and stretched. "Are you going to school today? I can't see the outcome of that decision very clearly so I'm assuming you haven't made up your mind." God! Is there no option of privacy in this house? First, dad reads my mind and answers questions that I haven't even asked yet and Alice knows what I'm going to do before I'm even sure of it myself.

"Yes, I'm going to school," I snapped. "But is there any point when you could just tell me what's going to happen?" I snatched the clothes from my duvet and tried not to feel guilty at the sight of her shocked and slightly hurt face as I ran into my en suite to get ready.

When I came out about twenty minutes later Alice had gone. I was starting to feel bad about my little outburst. After all, she didn't choose to be a vampire with the ability to see the future. Dad drove me and mum to school in the Volvo because Alice, Emmett, Jasper and Rosalie had already left in Emmett's car. The morning passed slowly, mainly because I was still worrying about offending Alice this morning. Me and Lindsey sat with Sarah Smith, Nicola Bates and Nadine Nolan at lunch but they were just talking about boys so I got bored and started to daydream. My eyes wandered over to where Alice was sitting but she was talking to Jasper and she didn't look over.

_"Dad," _I thought, as he looked over at me from his place next to Alice. I was vaguely aware of my friends laughing about something I wasn't listening to. _"Tell her I'm really sorry about this morning. I didn't have a very good night's sleep and I was in a bad mood." _He raised his eyebrow and gave me a look that said _"That's no excuse." _He glanced at my friends, distracted and smirking a little.

_"Hey!"_ I glared back. "_What would you know? You don't sleep."_

"Are you even listening Renesmee?" giggled Nadine from across the table and I jerked my head back to look at her.

"Sorry. I was daydreaming," I smiled back at her, eyeing the others cautiously. "What did I miss?" This made them erupt into laughter again which made me feel a little paranoid.

"Well," started Nicola after she'd composed herself. "We were talking about boys." Sarah started laughing again and Nicola continued. "And Lindsey said 'Edward's quite nice,'" they all looked at me, grinning widely and trying not to laugh again. I stared at them blankly. They did _not_ know how wrong that comment was. Saying my _dad_ was attractive. I looked over at his table where I was sure he'd heard Lindsey's thoughts. I couldn't help it; I started laughing along with them. For the first time in ages I felt like a normal teenage girl laughing with her friends, despite the fact we were laughing about my dad, also known as my brother.

The next morning, Alice cornered me in my room having forgiven me for yesterday's outburst and wanting a victim to try her new hair products out on.

"What is the point of all this... stuff when you never even use half of it?" I asked, shaking my head as she put some serum on her hands and rubbed it into my scalp. I always complained but really I loved the pampering.

"I get this _stuff," _she replied. "So I can use it on you, Nezme," she smiled at me warmly before frowning again. "Now stop fidgeting or I'll end up burning you." She grabbed the hair curlers and started slowly winding my hair round the hot irons until all my hair was in loose waves framing my face.

"Thanks Alice!" I grinned, enjoying this new look more than the others she'd tried recently. I started to get up but she placed her hands on my shoulders and pushed me back down. Grabbing a white bag from the desk, she opened it and started laying out the contents. She grabbed an eyeliner pencil.

"No, Alice," I crossed my arms and pursed my lips. "It's just school." I remembered last time I let her do my make up and then quickly forgot it again. She glared at me, her perfect forehead creasing with her frustration.

"Hold still!" she snarled, and I laughed because Alice rarely loses her temper and trust her to get so angry about something as trivial as cosmetics. She bit her sharp teeth down on her bottom lip as she concentrated, drawing a thick black outline around my eye. She then moved onto mascara and I looked up at her sadly when she grabbed a blusher. "Don't look at me like that!" she chuckled. "You'll thank me when I'm done!" And I did. Because when she'd finished I looked like I'd just stepped off a runway.

"Thanks Alice!" I beamed, finally getting off the chair as my dad shouted for me from downstairs. "But I really need to get to school now." I turned and started walking towards the door.

"Err, Renesmee?" called Alice. I turned back towards her.

"Some clothes might help," she smiled, holding a pair of jeans and a floral vest top out to me. I looked down at my pajamas and sighed.

"Yes, it would help wouldn't it?" I agreed, grabbing the clothes from her and running into my en suite to get changed.

At school, Nadia, Sarah, Lindsay and Nicola made me promise to invite them round and get Alice to work her magic on them. I knew Alice wouldn't mind, in fact she'd probably love the fact that she had four people who actually _wanted _her to give them a makeover.

We went to Sarah's after school. We always seemed to go round in a little group of five now. I didn't mind, it was quite nice actually. I'd never really had any friends before apart from the werewolves down La Push and my family and relatives so it was nice to be part of a friend group like this.

We walked the short five minute journey to Sarah's and her mum, a plumpish woman with red hair that matched Sarah's- except Sarah had flattened hers with straightners- opened the door. She welcomed us in and we had hot chocolate in the kitchen because it had been particularly cold that day.

"Hang on," her mother smiled turning round from the sink and interrupting our conversation. "I know Nadia and Nicola but I don't think I've met you two before," she looked towards me and Lindsay.

"Yeah, you haven't met them. This is Lindsay Thomas and this is Renesmee Cullen," Sarah said quickly, eager to get back to the other conversation. Everyone was engrossed, talking about boys again, everyone except me of course. I started to let my mind wander to Jacob but I was brought back to reality when I noticed Sarah's mum staring at me with shocked, wide eyes. I flinched automatically and she looked away with a guilty expression on her face. The afternoon passed quickly after that and much to Sarah's annoyance her mum followed us in each room we went into, cleaning things.

My dad picked me up a few hours later in the Volvo and when I got into the car I noticed he was gripping the steering wheel tightly. A quiet snarl escaped his chest and I tried to think of anything I'd done wrong because he looked really angry and even a bit scary. When I'd done my seatbelt, he accelerated quickly and we sped off down the road.

"Stop worrying, Renesmee," he spoke calmer now, his face relaxing a bit more. "You haven't done anything wrong."

I breathed out deeply, relieved. My family rarely got really angry with me, but when they did they were horrible. I tried to avoid it at all costs.

"So what was it?" I asked. "The thing that made you so angry before?" He had a pained expression on his face now as he replied.

"I saw the look her mother gave you in your mind," he spoke slowly, trying to control the level of anger in his voice. "And I heard her thoughts." He sighed. "I wasn't aware that Forks still believed the vampire rumours."

"That's why she was staring at me like that?" I gasped. "She heard the word 'Cullen' and automatically assumed I was a vampire?" I stopped to think for a minute. "Is that why she was following us into every room? So I didn't hurt anyone?" The anger was starting to show now, my voice getting louder and I felt angry tears starting in the corners of my eyes. I wiped them away furiously.

"Calm down, Renesmee," dad said, putting his hand on my shoulder. "You have to remember, they have reason to believe those rumours. Your whole family are vampires, and a lot of your friends are werewolves."

"Yes! But that's no reason to judge me like that! For all she knows, those rumours could have been completely untrue! She saw the colour in my cheeks when I blushed."

"I think she was looking for more traditional stereotypes," he explained. "You have pale skin, just like your mothers before she was turned and especially after that make over Alice gave you, you look older; flawless skin and beautiful."

"You have to say that! You're my dad."

"I saw it in her thoughts, and the thoughts of your friends. To continue, the rest of your family is also pale, with the exact same shade of amber eyes although most of them claim not to be related to each other," he sighed. "You can see where she got her suspicions from." We pulled into our driveway and got out the car, my feet crunching loudly against the gravel.

"Well then," I smiled. "I'll just have to prove her wrong. I'll convince her we're not vampires. Or at least that I'm not anyway. Then hopefully she'll assume the rest of you are normal. Because we are not letting a little suspicion like this muck anything up," I finished triumphantly, skipping into the house.

**********************************************************************************


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N – Sorry. It's took me absolutely ages to post this but I've been really uninspired. I'm not too fond of this chapter which is half the reason it took so long to post but I have some good ideas for the next few so they'll be better.**

_**Chapter Three**_

The next day, I put my plan into action. Alice was thrilled but the rest of my family weren't so enthusiastic. She's been annoying the hell out of dad because now I gave her the idea; she can't stop thinking about it, and because she's so excited her thoughts are coming across dominant and loud compared to everyone else's. Yes, I had convinced Alice to throw a party. Well, I don't know if I can use the term 'convinced' when Alice was more than happy to host it before I'd even asked her. Just after I had the sudden thought for this party, Alice came running out the door.

"Yes, yes, yes!" she beamed, giving me a quick hug while dad looked on bewildered, trying to figure out what was happening. My thoughts probably went something along the lines of "_I know, I'll get Alice to- Alice! Why are you hugging me?" _and hers were probably just echoes of what she was shrieking at me.

"There's so much to do!" she'd cried. "And you want it next week? Why didn't you give me more notice? I have to organise food, music, decorations. This one is going to be so much better than the last! Rosalie!" and then she'd ran back into the house, still talking excitedly to herself. I laughed as I remembered it and Nadia looked at me curiously from where she was sitting opposite me on the school field.

"Sorry," I smiled, "I was daydreaming again." She laughed.

"Well that's a surprise! You're always daydreaming. What was it about this time?"

"Jacob," I lied automatically. I had learnt to keep vampire related things to myself. But then I thought, why not? She'd hear about it pretty soon anyway. "Well actually, my family's having a house party." Her blue eyes widened.

"More like mansion party!" she grinned.

"Hah hah,"I laughed sarcastically, rolling my eyes.

"So what's the occasion? When's it happening? What am I going to wear! Oh, do you think Alice would do my make up?"

"I'm sure she'd love to," I promised, wishing I'd never brought the stupid party up, seeing as there didn't seem to be much hope of it going away anytime soon. "It's a family sort of event though, so you can bring your parents and stuff," I shrugged, "Carlisle and Esme want to meet everyone I guess. They really don't know too many people." I felt guilty, seeing how easy the lies rolled off my tongue. But I should be used to it by now, I told myself. I lie about so many other things.

"Oh, ok. But I still want Alice to do my make up. We'll take lots of photos, yeah?" she grinned, getting out her phone. "I'm going to text the others, ok?"

"Yeah, thanks," I said gratefully, glad I wouldn't have to repeat the party conversation again. "Don't forget to invite their parents." She looked at me strangely, obviously wondering why I was so keen for parents to attend. I made a mental note to stop being so enthusiastic.

I could hear dad and Jasper arguing in the dining room as they tried to agree on what music would be played. Alice was upstairs with Lindsay and Nadia who'd arrived early using the excuse of wanting to help out, but really just wanted Alice to do their hair. Rosalie and Jacob had been assigned the job of making sure the food wouldn't burn, and I could hear them arguing from the living room where I was finishing putting up decorations. I hung the last set of fairy lights then wandered into the kitchen to try and break up the fight before the first guests arrived.

"Come on it's going to burn!" Jacob was crouched on the floor, staring at the pizzas through the oven door. Rose pushed him out the way and peered in.

"It is not. Anyway, I have strict instructions here from Bella: '_Ness likes the pizzas when they are just starting to go brown.' _and those pizzas are still yellowy," she sniffed then wrinkled her nose. "You just want to rush it so you can eat some of them. Don't know why, they stink. Just like all the other human food you eat." Jacob ignored her, still staring at the pizzas.

"C'mon Jake," I laughed, squatting down beside him. "Staring at them isn't going to make them cook any faster." He turned round to face me and his smile widened. Nadia, Lindsay and Alice stomped down the stairs and walked into the kitchen, twirling round so we could see their dresses. Alice suddenly noticed me standing there and her eyes widened.

"Right. Upstairs now," her eyes glazed over as she searched into the near future and I looked towards Lindsay and Nadia to see if they had noticed but they were distracted, giggling excitedly about the party.

"Yes," Alice murmured. "There's time." She grabbed my arm and began dragging me up the stairs. I could hear faint cries of 'It _is _brown!" as we got to the third floor. We walked to Alice's room and she let go of my arm as she ran into her walk in wardrobe. She reappeared ten seconds later, her arms full of dresses and shoeboxes.

"Alice, is there really time for all this?"

"Yes. The doorbell will ring the second a few minutes after I finish your make up. Now, try this dress with these heels..." I pulled them on, already knowing that she wouldn't be satisfied. "Well, that's nice but that colour is going to clash with the eye shadow. What about this one?" She threw dresses at me one after the other and I began to grow impatient after about the eighth dress.

"Alice!" I groaned as she sifted through her wardrobe again. "You must have something in there!" She threw a dress at me and then emerged from the wardrobe with another shoebox. I sighed and pulled it on then I looked in the mirror. I was wearing a short floral dress with no straps. Alice handed me a pair of gladiator heels and I pulled them on, admiring them in the mirror. Alice smiled.

"This is the one Alice," I couldn't stop smiling. The doorbell rang and I walked towards the door to go get it.

"Excuse me? Where do you think you're going?"

I turned back round to face her. "Umm, I was going to answer the door."

"You don't have your hair or make up done yet! And anyway, it's just Seth and Leah. They won't mind waiting."

"Don't do _too _much, Alice," I half pleaded, sitting down in the seat she was pointing to. She laughed. "What?" I asked.

"You're just like your mother when she was human. _'C'mon Alice, don't make a fuss.'" _She grabbed her straightners and turned them on full heat. Then she got her make up bag and started spreading out different eyeshadows and eyeliners on the dressing table. Twenty minutes later, I was done. I was walking down the stairs just as the doorbell went and I skipped over to answer it.

Nicola, her mother and Sarah and her mother were standing on the doorstep. I invited them in, forcing a smile as Mrs Smith's wide eyes met mine then she broke eye contact to gaze around the hallway cautiously. I welcomed them in, deciding to just leave the door open so I wouldn't have to keep answering it. Nicola and Sarah complimented my dress and then we went to find Lindsay and Nadia who were sitting with Emmett, flicking through different music channels on the plasma. I guessed Jasper and dad couldn't decide on which music they wanted. The atmosphere seemed to get more tense as Mrs Smith entered the room but only for a second because then it became relaxed and calm. I caught Jasper's eyes from across the room and sent him a silent thanks.

"Hello!" Lindsay's mother called as she entered the big room. Behind her were Nadia's mother and a few other people from school with their parents. I smiled at them warmly, grateful that they'd come.

"I'll go get some drinks shall I?" Esme asked, walking out the room before anyone could reply. Emmett finally settled on a song and stood up and pulled Rosalie into the middle of the room to dance. Lindsay, Nicola and Nadia started dancing together so I pulled Sarah up from where she was perching on the arm of the sofa. We both started giggling and dancing and I tried to ignore the strained looks Mrs Smith was giving us and the rest of my family. Suddenly, her eyes widened and I panicked, scanning the room quickly trying to figure out what was making her look so shocked. My eyes fell on Jacob and Embry who had just walked in to the living room, wearing just loose fitting vests, cropped pants and flip flops, their pack tattoos on full view. I tried to see them in Mrs Smith's point of view but I couldn't see anything other than my Jacob, with his broad and genuine smile when he caught my eye. He crossed the room in a few large strides to stand beside me while Embry went to talk to Leah and Seth. I looked back to Mrs Smith and saw her looking at me and Jacob with a curious expression on her face and then she smiled, with a look that could only be described as relieved – and it was directed at me. I smiled back at her, a bit bewildered while Jacob looked from me to Mrs Smith with a confused look on his face.

"Why was Helen looking at you like that?" Jacob whispered. I looked up at him in shock.

"Helen? You know Mrs Smith?"

"Course I do," he replied, then a sad expressions flashed across his face for a split second. "She was one of my mum's best friends."

**A/N – Did you understand the last part? I have an idea of what happened in that bit but I don't know if I got it across right. Review or PM to let me know? :)**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N – Thank you to everyone who has reviewed and added this story to favourites and alerts. I'm sorry it's took me so long to update but I've been really stuck with this chapter. The first half has been finished for about a week now but I've been stuck with the last bit when they're at Lindsay's because it was surprisingly hard to write. Review please and I'll get the next chapter up quicker :)**

_**Chapter 4**_

After the party mum made me a hot chocolate and I changed from my dress into some silky pajamas Rosalie had bought me for my last birthday. I sat in the kitchen with dad, Jasper and Alice who were discussing the party.

"So what was Mrs Smith thinking about?" Jasper asked dad, a look or true curiosity on his face. "She was so stressed from the moment she arrived, then all of a sudden, halfway through the party the atmosphere changed and she relaxed. Of course I could tell she was still quite wary but she seemed to be making an effort to try and have fun... I just don't understand it."

"Well it seems we have Jacob to thank for that," Dad sighed, giving me a half smile and squeezing my shoulder. I smiled back at him, glad that Jake was in his good books for once. "Yes, Helen was a close friend of his mothers so she'd heard Jake rant about the Cullen's many times when she'd gone to see him and Billy when he was younger. When she saw how comfortable he was being around us and especially Renesmee, she felt she should at least attempt to get to know us and trust Jacob's judgement because if he'd changed his mind about us there must have been a pretty good reason for it," he finished and a silence fell on the room as we thought about what had been said.

"Wow," I said finally, breaking the silence. "Jake made her think all that in the space of a few minutes?"

"Esme will get it," Alice said suddenly, ignoring my question and looking up towards the hallway. A few seconds later the phone started to ring.

"Hello?" Esme's voice could be heard faintly from upstairs. We all fell silent again, thinking about Mrs Smith. "Oh! Yes, that sounds lovely. Thank you, Helen."

"Esme!" Dad called just as she hung up the phone. She was at the kitchen door in a matter of seconds.

"What's wrong, Edward?" she asked, picking up my mug and going to the sink to clean it.

"Helen?" Alice repeated, raising an eyebrow. Esme put the mug on the drainer and turned round with a wide smile on her face.

"Yes, she's invited me round to hers tomorrow night with the other mums. She said she had such a _lovely time!"_ She beamed as she repeated her conversation with Helen and then turned round and went back to washing the remainder of the dirty glasses and plates leftover from tonight. I quickly got up from the table and ran up the stairs two at a time until I was outside the library where mum was sitting at the large oak table reading a dog-eared copy of Wuthering Heights. She bent the corner of the page over and looked up when I reached the door.

"Hello petal," she smiled, getting up to put the book back on the shelf.

"Mum?" I began, sitting down in one of the old armchairs and watching her move gracefully around the room. She walked over to me and I pressed my palm to my mother's face, replaying the phone call for her to hear.

"Oh, yes. I heard that," Mum said as she sat in an armchair opposite me, studying my face. "That's lovely for Esme isn't it?"

"I don't understand!" I sighed, "Esme looked so happy even though Helen has been horrible. I know dad said she's trying to trust Jacob's judgement but how do we know she isn't just planning on being mean to Esme or something tomorrow? How can we be sure?"

"Look, Nezme. Your dad has seen her thoughts, do you really think he'd let Esme go out with these people if he thought there was any chance that she would be unhappy?"

"But-"

"Did it ever occur to you that maybe Helen is just trying to put the past behind her and make amends with us?" Mum asked and I knew she was right as soon as the words left her mouth. She put her arm around me and smiled. "You may not have noticed, but Esme doesn't have many friends, and almost no friends outside of the family because she spends most of her time in the house so you can see why this is a big deal for her." I pressed my hand against her my mother's cheek and thought of Esme's smile. "Exactly!" she sighed happily. "Isn't it lovely seeing Esme so happy?" I thought for a minute, and then realised that I hadn't seen my grandmother look that happy in a long time.

"Yeah, I guess it is," I answered, giving her a half smile. She glanced at the clock.

"Come on Nez, bed time now," she declared and I groaned but got up anyway and went up the stairs to my room. I threw the fluffy bed throws on the floor and got under the covers.

"Goodnight everyone!" I said loudly and got a chorus of "Sleep well!" and "Goodnight!" from two floors down in reply.

The next morning, I fell out of bed. It was one of those days when I just knew things weren't going to go right. I picked myself off the floor grumpily and walked into my en suite, stubbing my toe off the door frame. When I finished breakfast I dropped my glass on the way to the sink but Rosalie caught it before it hit the floor which made me even more annoyed with my own clumsiness. Alice did my hair and make up as usual but when she asked me to hold her blusher brush I dropped it onto my school skirt and it made a pink powder mark on the waistband.

"Hey Renesmee," Lindsay smiled when I walked into Spanish.

"Hola," I replied. She looked at my face for a minute.

"Someone got out the wrong side of the bed today," she laughed, getting her books out.

"Actually I fell out of bed," I corrected her.

"Well, that explains it then. Listen, my mum's going out with Esme and Helen and everyone tonight and my mum said I could invite you round so I'm not by myself all night. So do you want to sleep over at mine tonight?"

"Yeah, that sounds really great, thanks," I smiled warmly, already planning what I could take round. "I'll just have to tell Bella and Edward at lunch."

"Here you go," Emmett said, lifting my overnight bag out of the jeep with two fingers and then laughing when I struggled to carry it with two hands.

"Sorry if some of us happen to be half human," I joked as he took the bag back from me and reached the front door in a few large strides. He rang the doorbell and I managed to run to the door just as Lindsay answered it.

"Hey!" Lindsay greeted me and I could hear the sound of popcorn popping in the kitchen behind her. Emmett dropped my bag in the hallway and then left, leaving me and Lindsay to struggle carting it up the stairs to her room. We got the popcorn and then sat in the living room to start watching a movie. Halfway through the movie I noticed she started fidgeting and touching her face a lot and she kept giving me side glances.

"Lindsay! You've been fidgeting all through the movie, what's wrong?" I asked.

"Umm, well I don't know how to tell you this," she mumbled awkwardly, looking anywhere but in my eyes which made me doubt her straight away. I remembered my father telling me about my mother when she was human. '_Her face was like an open book, even though I couldn't hear her thoughts I could tell when she was lying because she failed to look me in the eyes.' _I looked at Lindsay suspiciously but her eyes were focused on the popcorn bowl between us.

"I saw Jacob with another girl," she suddenly blurted out, finally looking me in the eye but holding my gaze for a bit too long.

"When?" I asked, and she looked up with surprise.

"Umm, on Saturday. They were having lunch in a cafe and-"

"You liar!" I hissed, glaring at her as I could feel my anger building.

"I am not!" she argued back, "It was definitely him. They were hugging and-"

"Jacob spent the day with me on Saturday," I told her, angrily. "He came round early then we went hiking and didn't get back until late so don't try and tell me my boyfriend is cheating on me!"

She looked at me with wide eyes, obviously wishing she could just erase the last five minutes.

"I don't get it, Lindsay," I said, turning to face her. "Why did you lie?"

She started stammering, blushing madly and obviously trying to think of some excuse when it suddenly dawned on me. I looked at her in shock.

"You like him!" I gasped and she looked up at me guiltily, confirming my assumption. "How could you, Lindsay? He's my boyfriend!"

"Why should you get to have the best boyfriend?" she accused, standing up and looking down at me. I quickly got up and stared back at her in shock.

"Excuse me?!" I almost shouted. "Why should I get to have Jacob? Maybe because I love him and he loves me too?"

"You think so much of yourself!" she shouted back. "And you have no reason to with your freak show family!" I opened my mouth to speak but no words came out. I was fuming. Her last words were replaying over and over in my head and I pursed my lips, furious that she'd even dare to bring my family into it. I took a deep breath, raised my hand and slapped her hard across the face. As soon as my hand came into contact with her cheek, her face went blank; her eyes seeming to glaze over and her head jerked back with the force of it. Her fringe fell over her eyes and she turned her head away from me, cradling her cheek in her hand. Worried that I'd really hurt her, I put my hand on her shoulder. Her head shot back, shocked eyes meeting mine. She flinched away from my touch and backed away from me with a horrified expression. "How did you DO that?" she looked at my with a bewildered expression, speaking very quickly "I saw me... but through your eyes- and you were so _angry_ and- and-" she looked terrified and I was puzzled for a minute but then it suddenly dawned on me what I had done.

**A/N – Once again, no idea whether I got that last idea across, PM if you have any questions. And if you review, the next chapter will go up MUCH quicker than this one, and you know you want to know what happens next :D **


	5. Chapter 5

_**Chapter 5**_

I hadn't realised how angry I'd become, enough to lose control of my temper completely and let Lindsay into my head for a split second. She was still staring at me, her eyes as wide as my own.

"How did you do that?" she repeated slowly and I just looked at her, trying to think of some excuse that would make what I'd done sound normal. There were none. Suddenly, Lindsay froze beside me. "Is it... Is it true, then?" she asked fearfully, edging away from me. "Those rumours? That you're a..." I looked at her and my expression must have confirmed what she was asking because she screamed quickly before clapping her hands over her mouth, her eyes full of fear as she backed away from me, nearly falling over the coffee table. I just looked back at her sadly and I think she must have realised that I wasn't advancing on her menacing because she stopped and just looked at me with less fear and a little more confusion. "Am I wrong?"

"No, you're not wrong," I answered truthfully.

"So you're a- you're a... vampire?" she whispered.

"Not quite," I replied and she narrowed her eyes, trying to figure out if I was lying or not.

"What do you mean?" she asked cautiously, still keeping her distance.

"Well," I sighed. "I'm only half." She looked at me with surprise.

"Half?" She repeated and I nodded. "How can you be _half_ vampire? Is that even possible?"

"Well it would seem so, since I'm standing here. No one thought it was possible but my mother was human and my father was a vampire and they fell in love and he was able to refrain from killing her when-" I blushed. "When I was conceived. But I was a total accident and since there was hardly any record of it happening no one knew what to do and I nearly killed my mother," I finished unhappily, remember the look of pain forced into a smile that was the first memory I ever had of my mother.

"Wait," Lindsay said. "So Esme is human?"

"Well, no. That's another thing, you see... Esme and Carlisle are not my parents," I waited for her reaction but she just continued to look confused. "Edward and Bella aren't my siblings."

"But they're both so young!" she argued back and I sighed again as I realised I had a lot to explain.

"Well, when you're turned into a vampire you get frozen at the age you were when you were a human. So actually, dad's over a hundred and ten and mum is nearing thirty."

Her mouth opened in shock. Then she seemed to remember she was talking about vampires and took another step back, narrowly missing the bowls of popcorn we'd abandoned on the floor. "So, wait... vampires drink blood, and you said 'when you're _turned_ into a vampire'... does that mean you're _turning_ people into vampires here?"

"Lindsay, I'm not going to hurt you," I told her and she looked relieved but still not entirely trusting. "And it's Carlisle that does the turning. He doesn't care for human blood anymore, that's why he's at the hospital. And he only turned my family because they were close to death and he couldn't bear to let them die when he could save them, in a way anyway. The rest of my family don't touch human blood either. They're got the restraint to survive on the blood of animals so absolutely no one is in danger here." Lindsay looked a lot less worried now and even seemed to be calming down.

"But what about what you did. Before, when you slapped me. Is that a vampire thing?"

"Kind of. Some vampires are born with a power. Like I can let people see my thoughts, my dad can read people's minds, Alice can see the future-"

"What!" she almost shouted. "Slow down! Edward can read minds?!" She groaned and threw herself down on the sofa. "So every time I've been at yours thinking about him he's knew?" she groaned again. "I've been crushing on your dad?" It was silent for a few minutes then we both started to giggle. She smiled at me. "So you're really vampires?" I nodded. "Wow. So, what do you like sleep in coffins?"

"No!" I said, laughing. "That's a total myth! I sleep just like any other person; my family on the other hand don't sleep at all."

"Oh my god!" she said, amazed. "Anything else I need to know?"

"Umm, all those times we've been off school aren't because we were camping. I can go out in the sun but the rest of my family can't."

"Cause you'll burn, right?"

I laughed. "Not exactly. If they go out in the sun, their skin sparkles."

"Wow! You have to show me that sometime. This is _so _cool. Wait until Nadine, Sarah and Nicola hear about this."

I froze, wide eyed. "You can't! I mean they can't! Find out about this, I mean. Well, you saw the way you reacted. Well, you didn't actually see but-" I reached over and put my palm on her cheek and thought hard about how she'd looked at me after I'd slapped her.

"Oh, right," she looked at me when I took my hand away, smiling apologetically. "Yeah, I see what you mean. Don't worry, Nez, I won't tell anyone." She smiled again, and this time I could tell she meant every word she'd just said. I smiled back, grateful that she'd taken everything so well.

"How was your sleepover?" mum asked when she picked me up from Lindsay's the next day. Lindsay had helped me carry my bag all the way to the car and then she had given mum a wide grin before running back to her house.

I suddenly realised I would have to tell my family that Lindsay knew about us and I gulped nervously. I'd seen that she was telling the truth but would they be able to see the truth in her eyes just through my thoughts?

"Mum," I started. "I have to tell you something."

"Don't worry, Renesmee, I already know."

"What?" I asked, looking at her with disbelief.

"Lindsay knows what we are. Alice saw it before you left, and we could see it would turn out ok in the end so we decided not to worry you with it and to just let you sort it out yourself."

My mouth dropped open. "Mum! You could have given me some warning!"

"If we'd told you then what would you have done? You'd have tried to pull out of going to Lindsay's or it would have ruined your night because you'd have been worrying." I guessed she had a point but I still felt a bit annoyed that they hadn't even given me a hint.

We pulled into the drive and Mum got both my bags with one hand as I walked ahead of her into the house.

"I'm home!" I called, running up two flights of stairs to Alice's room. She was sitting cross legged on her bed, a number of fashion magazines spread across the duvet around her. She looked up and smiled, moving a copy of _Vogue_ so there was room for me to sit down on the bed.

"What are you doing?" I asked curiously.

She sighed, shutting the copy of _Elle_ that was on her lap and swapping it for _Grazia. _"I've been getting behind on the clothes planning," she told me "You, Rosalie and Bella need a few more outfits winter outfits for school and I need to find them before the shops start getting all the spring stuff in again. But, don't worry-" she looked off into the distance for a few seconds and then snapped out of her trance and smiled at me. "I'll get it done in time." So what did you want to speak to me about?"

"You knew!" I whined. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because you'd already left with Emmett and I could see that you two would work it out so I didn't see any reason to cause a big panic. And you two are still friends aren't you?" I nodded. "Then there's no problem!" She looked back down at her magazines. "Sorry Renesmee, but I'm not going to be very good company. I really need to get this done."

"Ok," I shrugged, getting up and walking along the corridor to Rosalie's room. She was sitting at her desk straightening her hair but she put the straightners down and turned round when I came in.

"I asked Alice to straighten my hair to see what it would look like," she explained. "But she said she was busy so I decided to try and do it myself." She looked at her perfect reflection and sighed sadly. "It looks horrible."

"What are you talking about!" I argued back. "You look like a model! You always do." She turned back round and smiled gratefully at me.

"So what did I do to honour myself with a visit?" she joked. "Or do you just want me to get you some food?"

I laughed. "Actually I did have a reason for coming to see you." I sat down on her white leather sofa and she swivelled round on her desk chair so we were facing each other. "I'm guessing Alice told you about the sleepover before it even happened?

"Yeah she did," Rosalie smiled guiltily.

"Well, at the sleepover Lindsay basically admitted that she liked Jacob... and I don't really know what to do."

Rosalie looked shocked. "Alice didn't tell me that bit. What's bothering you about it? You don't need to worry about Jacob, he loves you."

"I know that but what about Lindsay?"

"Don't worry Renesmee, you're his soul mate not her. My guess is that now you've trusted her in our secret she'll feel obliged to keep her feelings to herself. You know your dad and Alice would have stopped you if they thought she wouldn't be able to keep a secret like ours," a small smile played on her lips, "And you do realise she's probably quite scared of us now?"

I held my palm to her cheek and showed her how calm Lindsay had looked when she'd smiled at mum.

"Yes, but that was just Bella," Rosalie laughed. "I don't think Lindsay will ever look at Emmett in the same way again."

I remembered back to when I was younger and Jasper telling me that some people thought Emmett was scary. I hadn't been able to see it myself- Uncle Emmett resembled a big teddy bear more than he did a grizzly bear. I remember putting my hand up to Jaspers cheek and him laughing at my perception of Emmett. Of course now I was older, mentally at least, I would have been quite stupid not to see how Emmett's powerful physique might seem more than a bit intimidating to some people.

I grinned back at Rose and got up from the sofa as she turned back round to her mirror and started fussing with her hair again.

"Rosalie, leave it. You look fine," I told her in an attempt to stop her from worrying about the many faults she found in her flawless appearance. She stopped for a minute, raising an eyebrow in a way that said _it's hardly fine._ "I promise!" I said, laughing at her expression. "You'd still look beautiful even if you fell out the window headfirst into a bush. It kind of comes with the whole being a vampire thing." She grimaced, probably imagining being clumsy enough to do exactly what I'd just described but then she stopped and the corners of her mouth turned up in a small smile.

"Ok, then. Right I'm going to go give these back to Alice," she stopped and sniffed the air, a disgusted look on her face. "And someone's made you some human food."

**A/N – The next chapter will probably just follow on from this one. Reviews mean quicker updates ;) **


End file.
